Louie Provenza
| affiliation = Los Angeles Police Department | division = Major Crimes | gender = Male | family = Three unnamed sons Two unnamed step-daughters Six unnamed grandkids | spouse(s) = Liz Provenza (Ex-wife #1) Heather Provenza (Ex-wife #2 & 4) Sharon Provenza (Ex-wife #3) Patrice Perry/Provenza (Current) | playedby = G.W. Bailey | firstappearance = "The Closer (Pilot)" | finalappearance = }} Lieutenant Louie Provenza is the second-in-command of the LAPD's Major Crimes Division on The Closer and Major Crimes. Character Information Provenza is a long-tenured member of the LAPD with nearly 40 years served. He was selected to join the newly created Priority Homicide Division (later Major Crimes Division) after his history in the Robbery-Homicide Division first serving under then-Captain Russell Taylor. He is married to Patrice but has several divorces in his past and pays alimony to all his ex-wives (one of whom he married and divorced twice). He has children and grandchildren, as well as stepchildren and at least one step-grandchild, though only his future step-granddaughter has been seen and he implies that he was not an involved parent. His closest friend is Andy Flynn. Being the oldest member of both the Priority Homicide Division and the Major Crimes Division, he is often threatened with being forced to retire, though he has sworn to die on his post. As part of the divorce settlement with his first wife, he is to share his pension with her when he retires, and he doesn't want to give her the satisfaction. This agreement is void if she remarries, which she is planning to do. Though he often comes off as cynical or even lazy at times, he has a great deal of experience and sometimes notices small case-breaking details. In episode , he and Flynn were on a drive-along with Buzz Watson on his first day as a reserve officer. In season 5 of Major Crimes, he is surprised by Patrice when she tells him that they received a wedding invitation from Liz, Provenza's first ex-wife. Although he is happy that Liz is getting remarried, he is not happy that Patrice started pushing him to retire as now he wouldn't have to share his pension with Liz. He is quick to change the subject every time Patrice brings it up but eventually they come to a mutual understanding: Louie could stay at the LAPD as long as he wants, but he would be the last cop she would ever marry. In , Provenza considers retirement, worried about who will become the new Assistant Chief if Raydor doesn't get the position. At the end of the episode, Provenza changes his mind when Sharon suggests that he will take over Major Crimes if she is in fact promoted. In , Leo Mason was promoted to Assistant Chief, rather than Sharon. In , it is shown that Provenza has a personal relationship with Det. Camila Paige, having arrested the drunk driver who killed her parents when she was twenty. He remained a friend of the family during the trial. During the episode, Camila acted without Louie's approval when she yelled to a female friend of the missing children to call her, over the objections of her overprotective and racist father. Provenza reprimanded Camila, or "Cami" as he calls her, to "not go around yelling things like "call me" while I'm standing there, unless I say so." At the end of , when Sharon Raydor was angrily shouting at the FBI to leave the Major Crimes squad room after they withheld crucial information from them, she collapsed and subsequently hit her head. Provenza hoped that she was just dehydrated and would return shortly but that turned out to not be the case . Chief Mason placed Provenza in temporary command of MCD when Sharon was transported to the hospital and obviously could not continue her duties. After paramedics took Sharon away, Provenza reiterated Sharon's commands of throwing out the FBI which Chief Mason agreed to do. Later, Mason reprimanded Provenza about how he treated the FBI, but not overly so. Mason heard out Provenza's complaints but still stated that all parties should aim for civility. However, Mason was able to convince the FBI to pass the boys directly over to the LAPD instead of their parents, along with all copies of notes pertaining to their interviews, which appeared to somewhat calm Provenza down. Later in , when DDA Hobbs was with the Major Crimes Division after they decided to charge the boys for the murder of Lucas Garza, she suggested that while Commander Raydor was out sick, nobody there had a plan of how to go forward. Provenza found that remark offensive, stating that he's been a police officer for forty years and he knows exactly was he is doing. He also noted that the plan of charging the boys with murder was Raydor's, hoping that the knowledge of being charged with murder would make the boys more cooperative. Relationships Work Sharon Raydor When Captain Raydor first joined the division, Provenza had a rocky relationship with her at first due to her time in FID and him wanting command of Major Crimes himself. His dislike for her only increased when she started making deals with criminals rather than sending them to trial. It nearly causes him to retire, but she manages to reach something of an understanding with him and he changes his mind. Following this, while he still doesn't like her, he at least supports her and respects her. Sharon as a commanding officer is very different from Brenda Leigh Johnson. Where Brenda was a very hands-on leader and investigator because of her background in the state department and the CIA, Sharon is more administrative in nature, trusting that her detectives can handle standard day-to-day operations without constant oversight. This can be seen in the fact that while Brenda responded to every crime the MCD was called to, Sharon only responds to crimes that are particularly gruesome or higher profile than usual. When Sharon is present at a crime scene, she still defers to Louie's expertise much of the time, causing them to develop a good working relationship. This also means that when the division is deployed on the field, Provenza can be seen in a supervisory role and being in command of the division, something that he always wanted. In one notable instance, Provenza stands up for Sharon when Rusty makes her cry with his accusations of her not caring and wanting to get rid of him. Provenza explains that he doesn't like Sharon, but even he knows how much she cares about Rusty. Provenza is shown to be disgusted with the young man's actions, and his words cause Rusty to realize just how big of a mistake he made. Over time, Provenza's relationship with Sharon gets better to the point that he occasionally calls her "Sharon" instead of "Captain" and he supports her when she needs help. In , their relationship has progressed to the point that Provenza wants Sharon promoted to Assistant Chief and worries about who will take the job if she doesn't. When discussing Provenza's own possible promotion to Captain if Sharon does in fact get promoted to Assistant Chief, he admits that he is deeply glad to have a great deal of Sharon's confidence. Sharon admits that Provenza now has a great deal of her affection as well, "whether you want it or not", and goes as far as to share a hug with him and call him "Louie". In , after Sharon collapses while yelling at the FBI, Provenza loses his temper to a shocking degree at the idea that the stress may have been responsible for her collapse. Provenza goes so far as to fling a box across the room and order the FBI out of Major Crimes. Provenza is one of the most visibly worried about Sharon's condition and attempts to stay to hear her diagnosis in the hospital before being kicked out alongside Andy and Rusty. While using Sharon's morally questionable plan regarding Doctor Joe, Provenza notes that its with the rules, appearing to have a fondness for Sharon's use of the rules to their advantage in this case instead of being frustrated with them as he usually is. Rusty Beck Provenza has developed a close relationship, often resembling that of an uncle or grandfather, with former murder witness Rusty Beck. He advises and looks out for the young man, even behind his back at times when he feels it to necessary. In return, Rusty sees him as someone he can turn to when he needs advice and doesn't want Sharon to know. Provenza has only been shown to betray Rusty's confidence once when got worried about why Rusty was asking about his mother's recent arrest history and checked up on his jail visit with her. What he discovered alarmed him so much he informed the rest of the squad and Sharon out of concern for the young man. He also reviews video of Rusty's visits with his biological mother, and directs Raydor to the moment at which she suggests he get her money by prostituting himself again. Most notably, when Rusty admitted he was gay to the squad, Provenza's reaction was the one he was most worried about besides Sharon's. Like everyone else, Provenza showed no surprise (though everyone tried to pretend they were). Rusty still pulls him aside to make sure Provenza is personally okay with the revelation. Provenza, who has been shown to be politically incorrect in the past, informs Rusty that he honestly doesn't care that he's gay, just as long as he's not flamboyant. He lets him know that being gay is the one thing he can't give him advice on however and leaves it at that. When he moves to live with Patrice, he hires Rusty and his friend TJ Shaw to move his stuff into storage and lie to Patrice for him that they are actually giving them away to charity. Rusty's boyfriend Gus is included in the guests at Provenza and Patrice's wedding, the only person there outside of the Major Crimes squad. Romantic Lauren Lauren works at a high end department store and is much younger than Provenza. They fall in love in early Season 5 of The Closer. Patrice Perry/Provenza Louie met Patrice during an investigation in season 3 of Major Crimes . The two have an ongoing relationship and Patrice seems to care for and match wits with him like almost no one can. In season 4, they move in together, though Provenza pays Rusty and his friend TJ to put all of his stuff in storage, just in case the relationship does not work out. Provenza ends up being pleased with the setup Patrice did for their new place even without his input. In , Provenza plans a big dinner to propose to Patrice only to have Andy accidentally ruin the surprise for him. He then begins avoiding Patrice until she confronts him about it, telling him she wasn't sure whether or not to take Andy seriously and set things up for them to have dinner that night together and made sure it would be somewhere perfect, if the dinner turned out to be "memorable" for them. At the end of , Louie and Patrice are married in a small ceremony by Mayor Ramon Quintero (Played by guest star and current Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti.) Wives Provenza has four ex-wives. During reconstructions undertaken by the squad, Provenza names each doll after one of his ex-wives. A notable example was seen in the episode "Out of Focus" where he throws them off a balcony in order to see how a victim committed apparent suicide. He notes that his first wife Liz always used to correct his grammar ("Out of Focus"). He reveals to Pope that he is adamant not to retire and would rather die on his post, due to a divorce settlement he had with her first wife in which he would share his pension with her and is reluctant to do so because he doesn't want to give her the satisfaction ("Dial M for Provenza"). Assistant Chief Pope sympathizes with him since he made a similar arrangement with his own first wife. Due to Liz getting remarried, Provenza is no longer required to give up half of his pension with her. Provenza's second wife was Heather. She was also his fourth wife since he married her again. His third wife was named Sharon and he notes that she was the one that always had to be right ("Out of Focus"). Provenza's current wife is Patrice Perry whom he met after arresting her granddaughter for murder. Despite not being Provenza's usual type as she's his age, the two appear to have a good relationship with Patrice understanding Provenza's duties as a cop due to her first husband being one. Officer-involved shootings * Wade Weller ( ) Trivia *Louie's badge number is 35082. *When in uniform, Provenza wears seven service stripes on his uniform. Each stripe represents five years of service in the LAPD, meaning he has served for 35-39 years. (Last seen in ; June, 2015.) **In , Provenza states that he has been a police officer for forty years. While he may have been rounding up, it has also been a couple of years since he was seen in his full uniform, meaning that he may have another stripe now. *Provenza's first name wasn't revealed until Season 5 of The Closer when it was mentioned by his former partner, George Andrews. Before that, he was always referred to as simply "Provenza" or "Lieutenant". In , he mentions that even his grandchildren call him "Lieutenant". In , Rusty learns his first name is Louie and Provenza tells him that "unless you outrank me or I divorced you, my name is Lieutenant." In , while discussing the possibility of him taking over Major Crimes if Sharon Raydor is promoted, Provenza admits that everyone calling him "Captain" rather than "Lieutenant" would be like changing his name. *Whenever the PHD or MCD does reconstructions with dummies, Provenza names each doll after one of his ex-wives. *Provenza has been sent to sensitivity training at least once. *Provenza hates it when people sit or put things on his desk. *He is the last person of his police academy class to still be on active duty. *He sometimes gets jokes about his age such as in when he brings up his first job to Rusty Beck and Andy Flynn asks him if it was as a cabin boy on the Mayflower or as a dishwasher at the Last Supper. *Provenza tells Rusty that "snitching on people's how I started my career" when discussing possible job applications with him. He doesn't elaborate further than that though. *In , Provenza writes Rusty a letter of recommendation for working in retail security based on his work in the operation to catch Wade Weller. Dick Tracy steals the letter after Rusty changes his mind about taking that sort of job and uses Provenza's letter which he hadn't put Rusty's name on yet to get a security job of his own. *In of Major Crimes, he buys the Major Crimes squad room a new high-tech printer after their old one breaks but makes everyone pay for using it. Following his buying of the printer, the squad members can occasionally be seen putting money in a jar after using his printer. In one episode, Assistant Chief Taylor uses it himself (though he doesn't pay for it citing his rank) saying its the best printer in the LAPD. *In , Provenza's refusal to get glasses nearly causes him to be reassigned to desk duty as he's unable to shoot a good target without them anymore and can't qualify with his weapon. Near the end of the episode, he's stunned by the effect of a suspect's glasses and later uses them to qualify on the range, getting a perfect target. Following this, he gets glasses which he can be occasionally seen wearing, though he doesn't seem to need them at all times. Most notably, he wore them when he shot Wade Weller, allowing him to shoot him in the head, despite the distance he was at and the fact that Wade was using a hostage as a shield. *In , Provenza plans another engagement despite the failures of his many marriages and is angry when Andy ruins the surprise, telling Andy that when he plans to propose to someone, he intends to do it himself, not have Andy do it for him, *In , a suspect was arrested for using a victim's credit card but it simply turns out he found the card and was trying to buy his children a Christmas gift as he didn't have any money for it. After hearing the man's story, Provenza has Tao buy the man the gift he wanted for his children with Provenza's own credit card. *While Provenza isn't shown outwardly to be as emotionally invested in the Alice Herrera case as Flynn, he admits that the outcome of them not being able to identify Alice bothers even him greatly despite not showing it. *When two children are found murdered in , Provenza is noticeably upset, telling Buzz to make sure to get everything on tape and to start to search for other clues so they can make sure the jury can see everything as they do, presumably to make the case stronger against the children's killer. *When Flynn is sent to the hospital in , Provenza is shown to have medical Power of Attorney for him. He aids Flynn in filling out medical forms, but does it in such a way that Flynn jokes about needing a will. Rusty even comments at one point that he believes Sharon left him to make sure Provenza didn't go too far. One of the forms Provenza fills out is a DNR and upon seeing it, Patrice asks if someone is trying to kill Flynn who tells her Provenza did it. *At his wedding to Patrice in , Provenza was so excited he answered a question with "I do" before the ceremony even started. *After the bombing of the murder room in , two of the items seen to be recovered intact are Provenza's money jar for use of his printer and a bobble-head of Provenza. After recovering the bobble-head, Julio jokes "roaches, rats, and Provenza. They can survive anything." His printer is also confirmed to have survived in and sees continued use. Category:Characters Category:The Closer Category:Major Crimes Category:LAPD Category:Robbery-Homicide Category:Major Crimes Division